Carson Daly: A message from mother of 9/11 hero who was gay

Carson Daly made headlines Wednesday (March 28) for
joking on a radio show that if he had been in a situation like on the recent JetBlue flight where the pilot had to be subdued, it would've been just his luck to be on a flight full of gay men on their way to a Pride rally or a floral convention, implying that those men would not have been able to subdue the pilot.

Alice Hoagland (pictured above at a 9/11 memorial ceremony), mother of 9/11 Flight 93 hero
Mark Bingham,
had this to say to TMZ:

"Yes, my gay son was known in our family for bringing me flowers on my birthday and Mother's Day. He also was known for careening down the rugby pitch, and, on the morning of September 11, 2001, for charging unarmed down the aisle of a doomed Boeing 757 to face knife-wielding Islamist thugs in a hijacked cockpit.

No one among his pick-up team of fellow passengers was asking 'Are you straight? Are you gay?' No one doubted that a guy who weighed 220 and stood 6'4" tall - who could run over a charging opponent on the field, and ran with the bulls in Pamplona earlier that summer - would be an asset to a desperate group trying to overcome a threat on board an airliner.

The world has its share of strong, heroic gay men. Gay men in sports uniforms and
military uniforms have been winning America's games and fighting America's battles for a long time: quietly, humbly, and in the face of vicious bigotry.

I hope you and I may have an opportunity to talk sometime. I prefer to believe you didn't mean to offend. Good luck to you."